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KIRANA SPA, BALI
Japan. Our verdict: “Not inspired. Too clinical. Shiseido definitely needed a new unhurried, natural, even mystical image.”
Water falls from this stone mask, made from a soft volcanic sandstone called paras, into a stone well never to be seen again.
Perched on the banks of the Ayung River that runs though the middle of
the Balinese village of Sayan, this part of the spa is built on very high stilts just in case the river ever floods.
As part of the spa’s innovative filtration system, water flows out of a wall into the urns of maidens and then into a pool.
Spread over an area of 194,000 square feet (18,000 square meters), Kirana Spa blends in seamlessly with the natural surroundings—tropical flowers and trees are an integral part of the spa—and is constructed using the finest of local materials: dark gray volcanic stones smoothed from centuries of water rushing over them in the island’s fast-flowing rivers, white pebbles and butterscotch-hued paving slabs. The water for the spa is pumped from a source some 490 feet (150 meters) below the surface.
Following the topography of the site, we divided the spa into two distinct garden areas: the upper gardens and the lower Ayung Gardens, built within a coconut grove already on the site. Spread throughout the upper gardens are eight spa suites and one “to die for” Kirana Suite, each with its own swimming pool, spa bath, shower, steam room and, most innovatively, an open-to-the-elements private spa room with no walls—but with air conditioning! The remaining treatment rooms are in
the lower gardens. A beautiful stepped swimming pool at the upper level is available to all guests for as long as they like before and after treatments.
The first time I visited the site, I did not go down to the bottom of the valley, as it was just too steep. Today, one can walk down a very narrow series of paved switchbacks (a nightmare to build) and 198 steps later reach the lower Ayung Gardens. Here, the calm is punctuated by the sound of rushing water from the Ayung River at the bottom and the occasional shrieks of river rafters shooting the rapids. These gardens are fully mature as we built within an existing coconut grove. We kept the gardens here wild, using a palette of grasses: black sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), white bamboo grass (Arundo donax var.
variegata), alang-alang (Imperata cylindrica), and lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) in a large rice-like paddy field. We figured the spa could use a bit of lemongrass in their treatments, and we were right.
Lek also let the edges of the alang-alang roofs hang loosely as opposed to the traditional 90-degree cut, which works harmoniously. In the same more natural style, he designed the treatment suites like wooden tree houses, which float ethereally above the paddies of lemon grass. Along the outer edges of these paddies, following the course of the Ayung River, we created a Balinese upacara or walk to a temple festival with some 24 greater than life-size Balinese human figurative sculptures. Cast in iron in Java, we simply let the iron go rusty in places where we wanted to indicate clothing and polished and sealed the areas of skin. The traditional umbul-umbul or tall flags that are carried in such festivals are here made from a printed poleng or checkerboard design on Sunbrella fabric. The poleng design used in the garden and throughout the interiors of the spa is a Balinese traditional representation of the balance of good and evil.
Putu Dedik pays homage at the double bath pavilion of the Sayan Suite, gorgeously illuminated in the evening by candles in Lek’s brass and glass lanterns.
In the classical Klungkung style of Balinese illustration, Putu Mahendra designed dozens of witty cartoons for the lobby and consultation pavilions depicting the sometimes embarrassing moments of the spa experience.
Visible from the spa treatment rooms to the south, a “parade” of Balinese
carry offerings to a village temple for a religious ceremony. As these figures can only be seen from one direction, I used flat cast iron with decorative relief on one side only. The clothes—head scarves, breast cloths and sarongs—and temple offerings were left to rust, while the skin of the figures was polished smooth and sealed. Checkered poleng flags sway in the background.
Each of the riverside spa villas is entered via a gate. The mud finish on the gates, traditionally used in the higher mountainous villages of Bali, is protected from the elements by untrimmed thatched roofs with wide overhanging eaves.
This overflowing fountain is filled with pacar bunga or girlfriend flower (Impatiens balsamina), often used to make temple offerings. The figures standing in the water are inspired, again, by the Klungkung School and were made by Pesamuan in Sanur.
The gates leading to the spa rooms each have a personalized hardwood
“hat” modeled on Japanese farmhouse architecture.